Images show how HMS Glasgow, the first of eight Type 26 Frigates, looks today as the warship prepares for launch.
Eight Type 26 Frigates are to be built in total, with three in the first batch, the contract for the second batch will likely be negotiated in the coming months.
It is understood that the vessel will be moved onto a barge soon before being transported to Glen Mallan to be lowered into the water. The vessel will then be brought back upriver to Scotstoun to continue fitting out. Not quite a conventional launch, but a launch nonetheless.
Click the below images to enlarge them.
“The Type 26 Frigate is a cutting-edge warship, combining the expertise of the British shipbuilding industry with the excellence of the Royal Navy. These ships will be a force to be reckoned with, there to protect our powerful new carriers and helping keep British interests safe across the world.”
Earlier this month, crew from HMS Glasgow met the ship’s sponsor, The Princess of Wales, for the first time.
The Royal Navy said in a news release that to date, fifteen sailors have joined the vessel, the first contingent of the eventual complement of 161 Royal Navy personnel.
The crew were invited to Windsor where they met with The Princess of Wales for the first time since her appointment as HMS Glasgow’s ship’s sponsor was announced in June last year.
“It was a huge honour to be invited to Windsor Castle and to meet Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales,” said Warrant Officer Darran Sullivan, the ship’s Executive Warrant Officer. The appointment of sponsor signals an enduring connection between the ship’s crew and Her Royal Highness. It is clear from meeting her that she has a real interest in HMS Glasgow and in the lives of those who will serve onboard.”
Petty Officer Colin Chalmers, who joined as one of HMS Glasgow’s Marine Engineers last month, echoed the sentiment:
“It was amazing meeting The Princess of Wales, particularly as there was such a small group of us in attendance. The moment she walked into the room her enthusiasm and genuine interest in us really shone through and put us immediately at ease.”
During the visit, the ship’s company presented Her Royal Highness with an HMS Glasgow ship’s crest and challenge coin. You can read more here.
With the first crew appointed the ship is coming alive.
It’s good to see progress even if it is on the ‘steady’ side.
Cheers CR
Forward progress, nonetheless. BTW, did anyone clock the slobbering Orcs’ MoD spokesman alleging UK/RN complicity/participation in targeting Russian vessel evidently damaged in Black Sea? Good on you, mates! 🤔😁😉
Certainly clocked their one about RN blowing up the Nord Stream supplies. Think they nominated your folk initially? Here’s a thought; how about it was the Russians.
Why would the Russians do it? Gas flow had been stopped anyway but it could’ve potentially been turned on again very quickly so was a carrot the Russians could hope to tempt Germans with ( it terminates in Germany and they were the biggest customers) if public mood changed when they faced energy shortages through the winter. Now the pipelines are out of commission and recommissioning will be a major project of repair and testing. Even if repairs started in spring could Nordstream I and II be supplying gas before another winter? This increases pressure on Germany even more to… Read more »
Good Morning, Harry, just seen your reply. However, I’m still not sure whether you have a view regarding how the pipes became damaged. You may as well ask why Russia does anything that makes no sense to the rest of the world or likely has any ultimate political benefit to herself. The invasion of Ukraine a case in point? which even her Ukrainian cousins initially thought she would not carry out (no one was threatening Russia, after all). On the other hand Russian leadership is invariably quick to blame anyone other than themselves, to the extent it has become a… Read more »
Not the Nord Stream report, but the reported attack by Ukrainian drones on the Russian Fleet by drones.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/10/30/7374125/
Hi FormerUSAF, I doubt there are any NATO combat teams in Ukraine at the moment. Way too chancy given the unstable maniac in the Kremlin. More like there will be advisory teams a plenty, possibly including SF. The US have been the most open in this regard. For example, there is an article on the BBC News about a US cyber team that deployed to Ukraine in December last year. They pulled out when the war started I think. I also seem to remember reading that US and UK at least have been supporting the Ukrainian HQ planners in country… Read more »
Ironically I would NOT like to see the build progress – I would prefer it was done in a purpose built climate controlled build hall to speed construction & reduce the likelihood of future issues. If you haven’t got quantity it is reassurring to know you might have quality. Can’t come too soon ….
And as it has been mentioned plenty times, there are current plans for a build hall to be constructed on the same site, as construction with HMS Glasgow showed that some of the welds were impacted by weathering. I have full confidence however, that they have properly rectified the issue and that any other exposed builds will probably be made sure to have same stringent checks done prior to their launch.
Yes I am aware of the plans – just frustrated that this didn’t happen a long time ago – then there would have been no problem to rectify.😀
I’m with you on that one Mark. It’s frustrating and a bit mickey-mouse of a nation with as many military deficiencies as the UK currently has.
The building of, if we are to believe the rubbish from the government “game-changing frigate” would be better off built in a decent climate-controlled environment. I come from the security point of view. To have built it in a building where you control the access/exgress and what third parties see must be better than building it in the open?
She’s looking good…if all wrapped up ready for winter!😉
No need to worry about winter my man it no longer exists the global freezing scam from the 70’s went out of fashion. Global warming ..sorry man made climate change has put an end to all that. Weegieland is now el tropical 365 😉
Fantastic looking vessel RN getting a premier piece of kit👍🏻
🏴🇬🇧
Thought that was ffbnw cocktails?
You could be right!😂
Certainly they are going to be very attractive ships a unified design where the T23s are as great ships as they are, something of a unified scrapyard by comparison,
To be fair, the design process for the T23 was quite a convoluted journey from the original concept of essentially a towed array tug to a fully realised GP frigate. Makes it more difficult to come up with a unified design!
Good balance of weapons on the 23s though, that’s more we can say for the 31s ATM, I just hope the 31s will get those Mk41 VLS.
I was hoping they were going to cover up that gap underneath the overhang (near the bridge).
Good, now we need more of them ASAP…… Today Russia accused British troops of carrying out an attack in Crimea, Seems Putin sees the UK as the priority target in any escalation with NATO.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63437212
I wouldn’t read too much into any of the complete lies that Putin’s and his minions trot out.
Perhaps he sees opportunity in trying to drive a bigger rift within Europe. If the general populous of the EU look to the UK as the biggest cause of possible tension escalation they could wish for a simple solution to get their lives back to normal. Just a thought. It’s all about destabilising.
He’s deluded if he thinks the general population are going to think that and for it to have any effect. But then he thought he could take the Ukraine in 72 hours…
It’s interesting all the anti-vax conspiracy theorists in social media are running with the ‘Brits blew up Nordstream’ line. Just reinforces the impression of where they get the rest of their flat-earth rubbish from…
Absolute agreement mate, the anti vax Bde love a good conspiracy theory, no matter how shite it is! Just shows how little research and knowledge they bother to do, and have! Muppets!
The Royal Navy using combat drones in Crimea? ROFL. If only they had some to use.
He was suggesting a “British unit ” they wouldn’t name was involved in the planning for Crimea nd also responsible for Nord Stream 2, so one could take ones pick. SBS, one of the SAS Boat Troops, or maybe FDS for the pipe. Who knows with these Russians.
Any way, take it as a complement they’re obviously worried if they keep obsessing over our Tier 1 forces.
The Nord stream 2 that was damaged lays at just more than 80m. In the RM we operated at shallow depths. 80m depths are done either with several tanks of Tri-mix or a full on rebreather. I can tell you that would be high-on impossible doing it as a diver. At that depth you are more concerned with making sure you don’t kill yourself. Besides, the weight of explosives, time it would take to apply them at that depth would be something that would take team’s of divers. At most, you would get 10-15 minutes without any complications. The Russians… Read more »
Not for one minute do I believe that it was UK Forces. Anyway if a Clearance Diver had done it the photos of him mooning the pipe would be on social media (I have known and worked with a few CDs!) 😀 For info 80M depth is doable with CDLSE and you have good duration with it. You would need good duration as well because the decompression would be hours at multiple stops. CDLSE is simply the dogs b*llocks for re breather sets and is used by a lot of nations because it is so good. Maintaining it is a… Read more »
I was boss on a CD unit for 2 years, technical diving instructor and shark wrestling badge and all. .
I was a bit involved with CDLSE for an export nation sale So got a lot of info from DIVEX and CD users. I was also taught on a lot of PADI courses by our own pet WOCD who was part of our team. All fun in the sun.
Agreed. They had survey ships at the site as well!!? Did not know that. They must think people are stupid, but it is also for their own brain washed public.
The Russians have a proud history of blaming the uk for many imaginary situations.
It helps keep up the domestic audiences fear levels that all of Europe wants to destroy Russia.
Could you imagine the truss government trying to organise a secret pipe explosion or mr sunak signing off on a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet headquarters in his first days in office😂😂😂
Maybes Truss was trying to re-open the supplies of gas through the pipe, a huge explosion seems a logical step in clearing the blockage!!
It really does have a presence over the local landscape.
All I can think of with a name like Petty Officer Chalmers is the steamed hams bit from the Simpsons.
HA! Ok so I’m not the only child here… good to know!
Built outside in all weathers, taken by a barge downstream to be ‘launched’ into the water and then brought back up to to be fitted out.
Nothing like a bit of modern BAE efficiency! Thank Christ they are finally making some progress on building a covered ‘frigate factory’.
😂 it all reminds me way too much of getting a sofa up a flight of stairs. Up a bit. Your end down and left a bit. No the other left.
Barge launch will still be the norm, even after they build the new shed.
Mate, Here’s a video of the very modern BAE Australia shipyard in Osborne South Australia, this is where the nine Hunter class FFG will be built: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6vCiE5oHw Impressive? Yes? Five ‘prototype’ blocks are currently under construction, two to the UK T26 design (won’t become production blocks), but the next three will be, and they be used as ‘production’ blocks. The important thing to remember is that BAE doesn’t own the shipyard, the Australian Government does. The whole point of the Oz Government owning the site is that when it awards a shipbuilding contract, the builder becomes a ‘tenant’ for the… Read more »
Hi John,
I have long thought that is the model we should adopt. Certainly if Scotland goes independent and if the Government is serious about RN ships being built in the rUK then I would seriously hope we built new ship yards on that model. Would be far less expensive in the long run as you would not have individual contractors each trying to keep their yards solvent.
Cheers CR
Hi CR, Yes I do think it’s the way to go. The Osborne South Australia yard started as a ‘greenfield’ site, a blank canvas so to speak. First the Osborne North yard was built for the construction, and now ASC performs full cycle docking, of the Collins class subs. The ‘North’ yard will also have the new build halls, etc, for the future SSN fleet too. The ‘South’ yard is surface shipbuilding, and a common user hardstand and shiplift is in the middle. All owned by the Oz Government, and leased to the various tenants. In Henderson Western Australia, there… Read more »
Having a cursory look at how other European Warship Shipbuilding is done, Navantia from what I can see uses the traditional launch of a slipway method, while Fincantieri uses the Floating Barge method being used in this case.
OT helicopter news…
https://www.flightglobal.com/helicopters/uk-delays-tender-process-for-puma-helicopter-replacement/150661.article
Ahh delays, the staple of many government departments. A notice on the cost of proceeding with the delay would be interesting.
Also this at the end of the article is interesting.
the Puma has been selected to take over the operations in Brunei and Cyprus on a temporary basis, potentially extending the HC2’s retirement date to 2027, one source has suggested
Already happened. Puma is in Brunei and Bells have gone I believe.
Believe it is 1563 Flight that replaces the short lived 667 AAC that was previously 7 Flight.
Not a major crisis as the Puma and the Bells are still good to go for a few more years, and are upgrading enough to be reliable! Cuts and programme delays are going to happen with the “new” requirement for savings, it’s just a case, as ever, of priorities mate! Let’s hope however that Ben Wallace remains in post and has a big stick to beat the defence drum!
Well let’s hope the requirements don’t drop to 24-36 aircraft. I will eat my hat if 44 are bought.
Sadly mate you numbers of 24 ish will probably be correct!
That would be very sad. I don’t know enough about how helicopter warfare works or how many are needed for the force numbers the uk has but I do know 24 is a lot less than there used to be.
And in Canada the first steel to be cut is perhaps 2024 on the first frigate.
Why only 8? We need 80 and the sailors to man them!!!
Does Glasgow have her 5.0 fitted yet, or will that be added later?
9 would be fine
10, well then…
16? Pristine!
Nomination for poet laureate to the normal address please.
It is good to see the Royal Navy receiving this class of ship ,which will operate the latest technology to combat threats in the world
We possess the best shipbuilders and skills in building ships for the Navy
Rasputin has been building up his armed forces for years and hopefully we will have one to maintain its presence and create a Navy which wil match and above anything this Crazy Ivan can build
The Russian army, navy and airforce have been exposed as hopelessly outclassed by far from latest generation NATO weapons in every area of warfare. They are at least 30 to 40 years behind us.
Well we’re using 1980s vintage Harpoons & shortly will have no AShMs wheras Russia has many very scary AShMs. So we’re not that far ahead in every department but behind in some.
Very true but you have to remember Russia’s kit has been very over hyped for years. Geez I can remember folks flapping about the T-90 being better than western tanks. Then by 2022 Russia would have 100’s of armata tanks with other variants all based off that. They were hyped as going to be better than all western tanks. Well it’s 2022 and I don’t see these tanks.
Then we get the stealth cruise missiles that have been getting nailed out of the sky over Ukraine.
Russias best skills were put into fooling us all.
I’m certainly no sailor that’s for sure, but this programme, along with the astute, has to be the most important at the moment and the foreseeable future within the defence industry! Yes Ajax/Boxer etc is important but that shit is a cluster, has been a cluster and will continue to be so until someone has the balls to cancel Ajax, promote and up-arm Boxer, and understand the need of the Army. However at risk of being abused and beaten down in Colly, the RN are at this time the priority, followed by the RAF (not RAF Reg though) and sadly… Read more »
I’ll give that a like…Especially if it involves an RAF Regiment put down😄
Always, it’s the law for all real professional soldiers 👍😂
Spot on mate. Add the intelligence community to that. Knowledge is power.
Army – size is acceptable if we can sort the mess out to get a coherent Division to contribute to NATO, fully enabled with CS/CSS, then light forces, 16 AA, 3Cdo, and DSF.
Reality is I’d read the army is getting most of the uplift previously announced to 2024, so financially I don’t think MoD/HMG agree with us.
Hi Daniele, To be fair to the MoD / HMG given the increased tension in Europe and the very poor state the Army is in I am not surprised. Whilst I agree with you and Airborne in general, I would also suggest that there is probably very little that can be done to increase the size and capability of the RN at the moment on capacity grounds. On the people front recruitment and retention has always been a tough issue so I do not see expanding the numbers as anything other than a long term and expensive slog to fix.… Read more »
Quite possibly mate, I don’t trust any of the parties on defence any more than I can toss them, though Wallace does seem to be fighting.
Frankly, I don’t trust them on any issue. From looking after the NHS, to Climate Change (if ever there is going to be a future cause for conflict!) or for that matter Defence.
I don’t think any of them know what to do in reality, being too wrapped up in their dogma – whatever it may be.
However, as you point out all too rarely someone pops their head above the parapet who seems to know or at least to really care about what they are trying to do.
Ho hum,
Cheers CR
At least we know all the parties are all consistent at spending more money than they make and making bad decisions. Right now I’d give anyone a shot as it’s a case of can they do any worse😂😂😂😂😂😂
Mate the Army needs a good dig out, re-position itself ready for the future, but at the moment it will have to do! Russia is losing assets hand over fist, and western systems have proven to be battle winning platforms time and time again! Russian capabilities have shown to be mostly theory and on paper! However the danger we have there is our elected muppets may see a reduced future Russian threat (apart from unproven nuclear) and may scale back any future defence increase in budget and plans! They will/could/possibly see Russia as a “capability gap” and less of a… Read more »
Just read an interesting article on Navy Lookout (front page) about the Kingfisher gun launched dispenser / depth charge weapon. Towards the end there is mention of a BAES proposal for a continerised Light Weight Torpedo Lauch System with built in magazine (see last series of pictures). Along with a containerised towed array that I have seen discussed / suggested elsewhere it seems there is hope of variously up arming the T31 and T26. One concern I do have is that this would represent more energetic material being stored above the water line and I am not sure how difficult… Read more »
Thinking about it the torpedoes in the launchers are on the deck of ships already. I wonder about these firing from a gun sensors. It’s a big blast getting fired out a gun. Main advantage is using a firing system that’s already on ships. I do wonder if a less aggressive launcher system would be worth considering.
Sting Ray now has an IM compliant warhead which is very good to have unlike just about every other torpedo in the world. In a fire or RATTAM condition it will in the worst case just burn but not detonate. The old warhead like the new one was capable of punching through outer hull casings, ballast tanks and the inner titanium pressure hull of ivans subs. However it wasnt IM and it had issues. Look at T23 they have big armoured doors covering the tubes in Harbour. Older STWS tubes had big armoured cover plates as well when in harbour.… Read more »